
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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PRESENTED BY 


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 














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THE TEHUANTEPEC SHIP KAILWAY,—A Steamer in Transit, 







































































































INTEROCEANIC PROBLEM, 

AND 

Its Scientific Solution. 


AN ADDRESS 

Before the American ^Association for 
the Advancement of Science, 




ELMER L. CORTHELL 5 

Civil Engineer, 


\ i 


THIRD EDITION. 


THIRTY-FOURTH MEETING, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, 

AUGUST 26, 1885. 







THE INTEROCEANIC PROBLEM 

AND ITS 

SCIENTIFIC SOLUTION. 


Ladies and Gentlemen : 

We come before you, representatives of the Advancement 
of Science, to present one of the most important scientific 
and commercial problems of this age. 

The subject is full of active interest to men representing all 
those sciences that have to do with the advancement of man¬ 
kind. To geographers, biologists, anthropologists, econo¬ 
mists, chemists and civil and mechanical engineers, this sub¬ 
ject, so importantly affecting man in his agricultural, indus¬ 
trial, commercial, social and political relations, is exceed¬ 
ingly attractive. It must be a source of pride also to you, 
the direct descendants and representatives of the science of 
the ages, to know that from you and from those patient and 
able men of the past, have come forth the means for over¬ 
coming an obstacle that turned Columbus back from his 
search for the Indies and baffled Cortez in his efforts to reach 
the Pacific and its long sought for islands and countries. 

More than three centuries and a half have passed and with 
them have not only come new and greater wants among man¬ 
kind, but new and greater resources and power. Our wants 
develop, but our power develops also. Whatever necessity 
may arise in any age, science always furnishes the means to 
supply it. 

One of the greatest wants of this age is prompt, free and 
economical exchange of its productions, and the removal of 
the obstructions to its industries and commerce. The rail¬ 
way, telegraph, ocean cable and the steamship have supplied 
wants, but have created greater ones. No nation of the earth 
can now afford to be a stranger to any other. Distance and 
time must be annihilated. The improvement ol the means of 
communication to insure speed and economy is the study of 
the age. One barrier broken down, our efforts need all the 



6 


more to be expended on the next that stands in the way. 
Some mountain range that stood unnoticed and even undis¬ 
covered, when the Red Man roamed over its slopes and 
through its passes, becomes a most serious obstacle when the 
surveys of the engineers place it in the projected pathway of 
the locomotive. 

The obstacles to commerce one after another have disap¬ 
peared. The building of the iron ship and the invention of 
the propeller have brought the two shores of the Atlantic 
within a week of each other. The ocean cable has reduced 
the week to a moment. The network of telegraph wires 
spread over the continents makes near neighbors of far re¬ 
moved districts. The steel ribbons and the iron horse bind 
together distant sections. The Suez Canal, cut through the 
marshes of the Egyptian desert, from the Mediterranean to 
the Arabian Gulf, has shortened the distance from England 
to Calcutta forty-five hundred miles, revolutionized the carry¬ 
ing trade of the world and made it possible for England to 
hold, civilize and develop all her eastern possessions. In 
every direction civilization, through its numerous improve¬ 
ments in transportation, shortens distance and reduces the 
cost of moving the products of the world. 

But, while all this wonderful advance is recorded, there 
lies here (see map on the opposite page) in the centre of 
the world, midway between the far Pacific and Atlantic 
countries, with a broad ocean on either hand, a continent 
extending nearly the whole distance from the North to the 
South Pole, without a passage-way anywhere for ocean 
or coastwise commerce. Brave men and able navigators, 
some of whom have laid down their lives in the frozen seas, 
have for many years, supported by the civilized governments 
of the world, sought in vain for the Northwest Passage around 
this obstacle to commerce. The only practicable opening be¬ 
tween the east and the west lies between Cape Horn and the 
Southern Pole. Stretched along the western coast of this 
great continent from the extreme North to the far South is 
an immense wall of rock, piled up by nature so high that it 
forms an effectual barrier to the necessary economies of the 
age. If in the northern part of the narrow neck of land, that 
unites the great mass of the northern and southern halves of 
the continent, Nature in her ancient convulsions had rent the 
land asunder, mingled the seas and opened a capacious pas¬ 
sage-way, as at the Straits of Magellan or Gibraltar, we 
would not be here this evening to state and discuss this im¬ 
portant interoceanic problem. She did not do this work for 
us, but she provided a place the most convenient for a pas¬ 
sage-way, and there so arranged the harbors, rivers, valleys, 
depressions between the mountains, the slopes of the country 
and the constructive materials, that the advanced science of 


Plate J. — Te HUANTEPEC THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD’S COMMERCE. 














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3 


this century might build a way over where she, with all her 
mighty forces, could not break a way through. 

In order to fully appreciate the importance of promptly, 
effectively and economically solving the interoceanic problem, 
it is necessary to study carefully the relations of the countries 
of the world to each other ; to obtain detailed information 
of the character and volume of their productions, the routes 
by which they now move and the demand that exists in one 
country for the agricultural, manufactured or mineral pro¬ 
ducts of other countries. It is necessary to understand the 
peculiarity of the laws of trade in different countries. We 
need information also about the character of the races and 
the nations, their history, their methods of business, their de¬ 
velopment or decadence—in fact the whole commercial, in¬ 
dustrial and political subject in all its various forms must be 
familiar to us. With such information possessed there will 
certainly come to us the belief—nay more, the conviction— 
that the importance of uniting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans 
for commerce cannot be understated, and that, if there is 
aught in Science to produce the grand result desired, she 
should be called on for her most potent aid and her latest 
discoveries, in order that the correct principles and the most 
powerful appliances may be combined in a successful effort to 
overcome the barrier. 

Taking up a few only of the commercial reasons for this im¬ 
portant work, we call your attention, in the first place, to the 
fact that although the continent has been crossed by five 
lines of railroad they cannot profitably transport many im¬ 
portant bulky products. The cereals and the valuable woods 
of the Pacific coast cannot reach European markets by these 
trans-continental routes ; even the Panama Railroad, hardly 
fifty miles in length, cannot afford to do this work, so great is 
the expense of trans-shipment ; in fact, the trans-continental 
railroads, over three thousand miles in length, can carry 
goods with less cost than can the Panama Railroad Route. 
The cereals, nearly 1,200,000 tons per annum, still pursue their 
voyage of sixteen thousand miles, around Cape Horn, occupy¬ 
ing from four to five months, to reach the market of the 
world at Liverpool. The importance to our Pacific coast of 
shortening the distance for this commerce alone will be seen 
by the following facts. It costs only eight cents per day for 
labor to raise Indian wheat. England has expended, and is 
still expending millions to irrigate this vast and populous 
country. She is extending the railroad system to its most 
remote districts in order to transport the wheat to the sea¬ 
board, and she then brings it to her ports by the shortened 
route of the Suez Canal. Still our Pacific States, with their 
admirable climate and fertile soil, can compete successfully in 
the world’s markets if we can shorten the route one-half, the 


9 


time two months and relatively reduce the cost of transporta¬ 
tion. The valuable and inexhaustible woods of the Pacific 
will find a ready market on both the Atlantic coasts if an all¬ 
water route can be obtained eight thousand miles shorter than 
by Cape Horn. 

The Isthmian barrier not only prevents the development of 
our own Pacific coast, but obstructs and hampers the import¬ 
ant commerce of the west coast of South America. The ex¬ 
tensive and valuable products of Colombia, Chili and Peru 
must pass southward around Cape Horn on a circuitous route 
to New York or Liverpool. Again, in the interchange of our 
manufactured goods for the raw materials of the Pacific 
coasts, Australasia, Malaysia and Polynesia, we are debarred 
from these important markets by the same insurmountable 
obstacle. By the impetus given to the development of the 
far Pacific countries by the opening of the Suez Canal, their 
commerce has increased one hundred and fifty per cent, in the 
last five years, and now amounts to nearly two billion dollars 
per annum. Australia alone has a railway system six thou¬ 
sand miles in length and a foreign commerce of about four 
hundred million dollars. She imports from us a small quantity 
of nearly all of our manufactured articles, which find their way 
thither by many indirect and expensive routes, and generally 
in foreign ships. It is interesting to note the routes by which 
many products move. Of the tea shipped from Japan to New 
York last year, about one-half, sixteen million pounds, went 
across the Pacific to San Francisco, and was there put aboard 
the cars and hauled across the continent ; the other half went 
down the Asiatic coast, through the Indian Ocean, Suez 
Canal, the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic Ocean. On 
account of our inability to reach Pacific ports, and the ab¬ 
sence of our ships there, many of the goods shipped from 
Peruvian and other South American ports to New York are 
sent to Liverpool on English ships, and are thence re-shipped 
across the Atlantic. Of all the vast commerce of the Pacific 
our country enjoys only four per cent. 

Forty-five millions of our people live east of the Rocky 
Mountains, and produce nearly all the manufactured goods of 
the country which amount annually to the enormous total of 
over five billion dollars ($5,000,000,000) in value. Not being 
able to reach economically or promptly the countries that 
have need of these manufactured articles, we export but two 
per cent, of them, and must yield to those countries of Europe 
which are much nearer to the markets. The annual internal 
commerce of the United States, however, amounts to $12,- 
000,000,000—400,000.000 tons. One train of cars transporting 
this freight woiddgirdle the earth seven times. Special atten¬ 
tion^ called to the unfortunate position of the Mississippi 
Valley and its seaports on the Gulf; with only eight hundred 


10 


miles between them and the Pacific, they cannot reach it ex¬ 
cept by a voyage around Cape Horn, which absolutely pre¬ 
vents the interchange of productions. Our whole eastern and 
southern coast can send its products Eastzvard , but to the 
j Westward is an impassable barrier, and Westward are six 
hundred million people just now opening their rich treasures 
to civilization and commerce. The dwellers on the west 
coast of South America, Mexico and our own Pacific coast, 
although seemingly our nearest neighbors, are practical^ 7 re¬ 
moved further from us than the East Indies are by way of the 
Suez Canal. 

The over-sea commerce of the globe is now upwards of 
fourteen billion dollars, and is increasing at the rate of seventy- 
five per cent, every decade ; so that, if ten years ago it was 
important to solve the Isthmian problem, it is more import¬ 
ant to-day, and will be still more so ten years hence. Had 
we time and space we could bring forward a mass of evidence 
in detail that would prove the absolute necessity of a passage¬ 
way through or over the narrow neck of land separating the 
two great oceans. For nearly four centuries this important 
subject has been before the world with continually increasing 
interest. 

A volume could be written givinga history of the attempts 
of governments, companies and individuals to find a passage¬ 
way for commerce across the American Isthmus. England, 
France, Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands and the United 
States, as Governments, have from time to time interested 
themselves in explorations of the country. Beginning at the 
Southern extremity, surveys have been made by Galva of 
Portugal in 1550; Galestro of Spain in 1780 ; Humboldt, 
Garella, Trautwine, Kennish, Mitchler, Craven, Strain, Col¬ 
lins, Selfridge, Wyse, Reclus, Childs, Hatfield, Lull, McFar¬ 
land, Menocal, Moro, Barnard, Williams, Shufeldt, Garay and 
Van Brocklin.. The records of their surveys are on file 
with the governments, companies or individuals by whom 
they were employed. Statesmen, economists, commercial 
men and engineers have always taken a deep interest in the 
subject : Of our own statesmen Jackson, Webster, Buchanan, 
Fillmore, Cass, Grant and Arthur were especially active in 
urging interoceanic communication. The statesmen of 
Mexico, from Cortez to General Diaz, have been urgent for it, 
and the same may be said of the statesmen of the smaller 
states of the Isthmus. In plain and forcible language, Gen¬ 
eral Grant said in 1881, in the North American Review : 

“ The States of North and South America, lying along the 
“Pacific, furnish in large abundance those commodities which 
“are constantly needed in the markets of almost every 
“ country of Europe. Of guano and nitre the trade is im- 


11 


“ mense. From the ports of Chili, nearly four hundred thou¬ 
sand tons of freight are shipped eastward annually. More 
“ than one million tons of grain are shipped each year from 
“ the Pacific States and Territories. There is no doubt that 
“ more than 4,000,000 tons of merchandise find their way from 
“ the east and require water communication, in order that 
“ they may be shipped economically and profitably, and this 
“ is merchandise to which railway transportation across the 
“continent is wholly inapplicable.” 

In a message to Congress last year, President Arthur thus 
earnestly presented the salient points of this important sub¬ 
ject : 

“ While the enterprise of our citizens has responded to the 
“ duty of creating means of speedy transit by rail between 
“ the two oceans, these great achievements are inadequate to 
“ supply a most important requisite of national union and 
“ prosperity. For all maritime purposes, the States upon the 
“ Pacific are more distant from those upon the Atlantic than 
“ if separated by either ocean alone. Europe and Africa are 
“ nearer New York, and Asia is nearer to California than are 
“ these two great States to each other by sea. Weeks of 
“ steam voyage, or months under sail, are consumed in the 
“ passage round the Horn, with the disadvantage of travers- 
“ ing tempestuous waters or risking the navigation of the 
“ Straits of Magellan. A nation like ours cannot rest 
“ satisfied with such a separation of its mutually dependent 
“ members. We possess an ocean border of considerably over 
“ ten thousand miles on the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, and, 
“ including Alaska, of some ten thousand miles on the Pacific. 
“Within a generation the western coast has developed into 
“ an empire, with a large and rapidly growing population, 
“ with vast but partially developed resources. At the present 
“ rate of increase, the end of the century will see us a com- 
“ monwealth of, perhaps, nearly a hundred million inhabit- 
“ ants, of which the west should have a considerably larger 
“ and richer proportion than now. * * * 

“The relation of these American countries” (Pacific Coast 
of South America,) “ to the United States is that of a natural 
“ market from which the want of direct communication has 
“ hitherto practically excluded us. By piercing the Isthmus 
“ the heretofore insuperable obstacles of time, sea and distance 
“ disappear, and our vessels and productions will enter upon 
“ the world’s competitive field, with a decided advantage of 
“ which they will avail themselves. * * * 

“ It will bring European grain markets of demand within 
“easy distance of onr Pacific, and will give to the manufac- 
“ turers on the Atlantic seaboard economical access to the 
“ cities of China, thus breaking down the barrier which sepa- 



12 


“rates the principal manufacturing - centres of the United 
“ States from the markets of the vast population of Asia, and 
“ placing the Eastern States of the Union for all purposes of 
“ trade, midway between Europe and Asia.” 

Without giving the detailed results of the many surveys 
and examinations that have been made of the American Isth¬ 
mus, it may be said that the various routes have been re¬ 
solved into three, viz. : Panama, Nicaragua and Tehuantepec. 
The length of the Isthmus from Tehuantepec to Panama is 
about twelve hundred statute miles, in an air line, or equal to 
the distance between New York and the Florida Straits. The 
Isthmus varies in height and width, now rising to a consider¬ 
able altitude and now sinking into low depressions. At 
Panama it is scarcely fifty miles wide, at another point only 
thirty-one miles, at Nicaragua, following the natural depres¬ 
sion one hundred and eighty-one miles and at Tehuantepec one 
hundred and thirty-four miles, between navigable waters. At 
the Southern extremity of the Isthmus, there exists, on 
either side, a region of calms and baffling winds termed “ Dol¬ 
drums.” This is caused partly by the peculiar configuration of 
the West India Islands, which present an almost continuous 
barrier on the east of the Caribbean Sea, and partly by the 
mountain ranges of the Isthmus, which offer a still more for¬ 
midable obstacle to the passage of the north-east trades, 
throwing them high into the upper regions of the atmosphere 
and extending the calms far out into the Pacific Ocean, on the 
parallel of Panama. This whole region is shunned by navi¬ 
gators of sailing vessels, who often run a thousand miles out 
of their course to avoid it. The nautical conditions that exist 
at the Northern part of the Isthmus, near Tehuantepec, are 
much different, and much more favorable to sailing vessels. 
Lieutenant Maury, an undisputed authority in geography and 
navigation, stated that should a convulsion of nature rend 
asunder the Darien Isthmus, no sailing ship would use the 
strait thus formed, but in reference to the conditions existing 

o 

in the northern part of the Isthmus his eloquent words are * 
well worth giving : 

“ From the Gulf of Mexico, the great commercial markets. 

“ of the world are down-hill. A vessel bound from that gulf 
“ to Europe, places herself in the current of the Gulf Stream 
“ and drifts along with it at the rate, for part of the way, of 
“ eighty or one hundred miles a day. * * * And when 

“ there shall be established a commercial thoroughfare across 
“ the Isthmus, the trade winds of the Pacific will place China, 

“ India, New Holland, and all the islands of that ocean down- 
“ hill from this sea of ours. In that case, Europe must pass 
“ by our very doors on the great highway to the markets 
“both of the East and West Indies. This beautiful Mesopo- 


13 


“ tamian sea is in a position to occupy the summit level of 
“ navigation, and to become the great commercial receptacle 
“ of the world. Our rivers run into it, and float down with 
“ their currents the surplus articles of merchandise that are 
“ produced upon their banks. Arrived with them upon the 
“bosom of this grand marine basin, there are the currents of 
“ the sea and the winds of heaven, so arranged by nature that 
“ they drift it and waft it down-hill and down stream to the 
“great market-places of the world.” 

Commodore Shufeldt said in 1871, in an official report of his 
survey of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, “each isthmus rises 
“ into importance as it lies nearer to the centre of American 
“ commercial interests ; any intrinsic value of this eminently 
“ national work ought to be based upon the inverse ratio of 
“ the distance from that centre.” An all-water route by way 
of 1 ehuantepec connects the east and west coast lines of the 
United States and Mexico, and renders our own territory cir- 
cumnavigable, as it were. 

Lying nearly ten degrees north of Panama, the climate at 
Tehuantepec is much more healthy and the heat less intense. 
In reference to the commercial advantage of this northern 
route, it needs no argument to prove that that route is the 
shortest, and, other things being equal, the best, which lies 
nearest the axial line of productions, population and traffic, 
and which, approximately, may be assumed to pass through 
Hong Kong, San Francisco, New York and Liverpool. The 
Tehuantepec route is shorter than the Panama by from seven 
hundred to twenty-two hundred miles, depending upon the 
ports to be connected. In general, the advantages of this 
northern route are, favorable winds, a healthy climate, great 
saving in distance, good harbors, a location in a strong 
neighboring republic, and not in an insurrectionary country 
with an unstable government, a defensible route and a 
country well adapted for what we consider to be the proper 
method of interoceanic transit, viz.: by a Ship Railzvay. 

The great importance to this country to possess a route 
advantageous to sailing vessels, will be seen from the fact 
that there are, sailing under the American flag, over six thou¬ 
sand sailing vessels engaged in over-sea commerce, and only 
about four hundred steamships. We can build wooden sailing- 
ships cheaper than any other nation in the world; the cost is 
about fifty dollars per registered ton, whereas in England it 
is seventy-five dollars, but England can build iron ships for 
fifty-five dollars per ton, whereas the cost in this country is 
seventy-five dollars. The interoceanic route that would pro¬ 
hibit sailing vessels would drive our commerce from the seas. 

The preceding brief sketch gives the general conditions of 
the problem before us, geographical, commercial, industrial 



14 


and political. The scientific solution of the problem is that 
one which most nearly satisfies these conditions, is most 
closely in accord with the science of this age, gives a method 
adequate, not only for the commerce of this, but the coming 
centuries, is best adapted to the country to be traversed, most 
economical in construction, maintenance and operation and 
will despatch vessels from ocean to ocean with the greatest 
speed and safety. 

We propose, now, to describe and explain what we believe 
to be this scientific solution. We will attempt to show that 
the method by ship railway is far better than any other and 
is most nearly in accord with the scientific tendencies and 
developments of this last quarter of the nineteenth century, 
and is far more capable than any other method of meeting 
the wants of the coming ages. The following description, 
supplemented by the stereoscopic views of the plans and by 
the plates which accompany this address, will, we think, 
prove the practicability and the economy of the ship railway. 

The ship railway involves no new principle, but the appli¬ 
cation on a large scale of the principles and appliances that 
are well-known among scientific and practical men. The 
hauling of vessels and of boats overland is no new thing. It 
has been done in various countries and at different times in 
all parts of the civilized world, from four hundred years before 
Christ, when the Athenians transported their immense tri¬ 
remes of about one hundred and fifty tons weight, over the 
Isthmus of Corinth, to this day, when large ships are hauled 
out of the water on marine railways, or lifted on hydraulic 
docks and then hauled ashore. It is interesting to note that 
Emmanuel Swedenborg, under Charles XII of Sweden, at the 
siege of Frederickshall in 1718, transported some vessels over 
fourteen miles of rough country, by rolling machines of his 
own design. We therefore simply utilize for a great work 
what science has taught and developed during the last twenty- 
three hundred years. 

Twenty-five miles from the Gulf, at Minatitlan, in the 
broad, deep river Coatzacoalcos, a basin will be excavated to 
admit the vessels to the liftfng dock, which will be constructed 
of steel plates with substantial bulkheads in each direction, 
and will be about four hundred and fifty feet long, seventy- 
five feet wide, and from twelve to fifteen feet deep, and capable 
of raising vessels of from six to seven thousand tons weight. 
One of the objections that is sometimes urged against lifting 
loaded vessels is the fact that they would bring upon the car¬ 
riage, or car, unequal weights. One of the special designs of 
the dock is an appliance for equalizing the weight of the ves¬ 
sel and distributing it perfectly over the whole area of the 
carriage which transports it. This distribution of weight is 


15 


effected by a system of hydraulic rams or presses. These 
rams are situated on a deck placed about six feet below the 
upper deck of the lifting - dock, or pontoon. They are arranged 
so that there will be the same area of pressure on every cross 
line. 1 hese cross lines are spaced six feet and seven inches 
apart, and the number in each line corresponds to its position 
under the vessel; those under the midship section of the vessel 
having seven rams; those nearer the bow or stern five and 
then three rams; while under the bow or stern the whole sup¬ 
porting area is concentrated into one ram. These rams are 
also arranged in seven longitudinal lines : one, composed of 
the most powerful rams, under the keel and one on each side 
under the bottom, bilges and sides of the vessel. There are 
one hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty of the rams, 
all connected together by pipes, and the whole system is 
actuated by steam pressure pumps, which are placed on the 
top of towers that are connected with the pontoon and move 
with it, but are not submerged when the pontoon goes into 
the water. The rams have a range of movement of seven or 
eight feet, which permits them to take the shape of the vessel, 
whatever its model may be. The carriage transporting the 
vessel is supplied with corresponding supports, so placed in 
the carriage that they can be brought directly over the rams 
in the pontoon. The carriage has a continuous keel-block 
running from one end to the other, and perfectly adjustable 
to the shape of the vessel’s keel. The other supports are pro¬ 
vided at the upper end with a broad cushioned surface hinged 
with a universal joint, so as to take the shape of the vessel. 
These battened supports, as well as those under the contin¬ 
uous keel block, move freely in the girders of the carriage and 
project below them when the carriage is in position on the 
pontoon. The principal strength of the carriage is in its cross 
girders, the short longitudinal girders connecting them being 
intended only to transfer the weight to the wheels. In order 
to raise the vessel the carriage is run upon the pontoon, which 
is provided with six rails, and is locked in position so as to 
bring the supports directly over the rams. The water is then 
let into the dock and it sinks to the foundations in the bot¬ 
tom of the basin, or to a sufficient depth to allow the vessel 
to be floated in over it without interfering with the supports 
of the carriage. The water is then pumped out of the pon¬ 
toon by means of powerful centrifugal pumps, and it rises up 
under the vessel. Just before coming into contact with it, 
the pressure pump is set at work, and the rams rise up under 
the keel block and the other supports, bringing them up to 
the hull of the vessel. As the pontoon continues to rise, 
bringing the vessel with it, the rams, on which the supports 
rest, equalize the constantly increasing weight and distribute 
it in'such a manner that, when the vessel is entirely out of 


16 


the water and its weight rests upon the rams altogether, they 
bear it equally from stem to stern and from side to side, which 
equality of pressure must necessarily result from the peculiar 
arrangement of the areas of the rams, previously described. 
A thread is cut in the supports, in which moves an adjusting 
nut, or hand-wheel, which is run down to a bearing on the 
upper plate of the cross girders. When this work has been 
performed, the valves of the pressure pumps are opened and 
the water is allowed to escape from under the rams, when 
they recede downward into the pontoon, leaving the vessel 
supported on the carriage exactly as it was supported on the 
rams. 

In order to compel the pontoon, as it is raised or lowered, 
to move in a perfectly horizontal plane, hydraulic governors 
are attached to the corners of the pontoon and the outside 
dock ; the mechanism of these governors being as follows : 
An upright cylinder on each corner of the outside dock is 
connected by a pipe with an inverted cylinder on the opposite 
diagonal corner. Attached to each corner of the pontoon 
are two plungers, which move in the cylinders ; one of these 
plungers being upright and the other inverted. The cylinders 
and the pipes are filled solid with water. When the vessel is 
being raised out of the water a greater weight may be brought 
upon one end of the pontoon than upon the other, as it would 
be impossible to bring the vessel in so that its centre of grav¬ 
ity would be exactly over the centre of the pontoon. The 
effect would be that one end of the pontoon would not be 
able to rise as rapidly as the other end ; this would cause the 
pontoon in its movement to bind upon the guiding cylinders, 
upon which it moves, and thus prevent its further movement. 
One-half the preponderance of weight is suspended on one 
plunger at the heavy end and one-half upon the other ; this 
brings a pressure upon the water in the cylinders, which im¬ 
mediately reacts through the pipes in the top of the cylinders 
at the diagonal corners, and exerts the same amount of 
downward pressure upon the plungers in those cylinders. 
This compels the pontoon to rise and fall perfectly level. 
These governors also serve the important purpose of deter¬ 
mining by a pressure gauge the amount of excess of weight if 
any, on one end or the other of the lifting dock. If the gauge 
should show it to be more than it is possible to equalize upon 
the carriage, it would be necessary to lower the pontoon and 
re-adjust the position of the vessel over it. The time required 
to lift the maximum sized vessel is from fifteen to twenty 
minutes. It is practicable to perform the whole work of 
bringing the vessel in, raising it, and adjusting the supports 
ready for transportation on the railway, in thirty minutes 
time. The details of the mechanical plans are illustrated in 
Plates II. and III. and a perspective view of the terminal 
is shown in plate IV. 


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Plate Ill .—Plan and Detail of Railway Carriage. 

Fig. 1.—General View of tlie Great Car. Fig. 2.-A Section of the Great Car. Fig. 3.—Group of Independent Wheels and Axles. 



Fig. 3 



















































































































Plate 1V. —T he Lifting Pontoon and Railway Cradle.— [perspective view.] 
































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































21 


The road-bed will be constructed of the very best mater¬ 
ials. It will be about fifty feet in width. There will be under 
the ties two feet of broken stone ballast ; these ties will be 
about forty feet in length, formed of steel plates on which will 
rest the steel rails, whose weight will be from one hundred to 
one hundred and twenty pounds per lineal yard. In other 
words, a perfect marine railway will be constructed from one 
terminus to the other which will be abundantly able to hold 
up the heaviest weight that may be placed upon it. It will 
readily be seen that the distribution of weight, by the system 
of rams, not only brings a uniform weight upon the wheels, and 
one that they are abundantly able to sustain, but also dis¬ 
tributes the weight over a large area on the road-bed, and 
thus prevents a concentrated weight being brought upon any 
part of it. The maximum load to be transported will not 
bring upon any one wheel more than eight and one-half or 
nine tons. These wheels will be tested to twenty tons, when 
manufactured. There will be over each wheel a powerful 
spring, which will also be tested to twenty tons, and will 
have a movement of six or seven inches, so that when the 
greatest load is upon it, it will not be closed within three or 
four inches. This gives an elastic bearing for the vessel and 
carriage. If there should be any irregularity in the track, 
these springs will serve to take it up, without bringing any 
undue weight upon the wheels. 

The vessels will be hauled across the Isthmus by powerful 
locomotives. The engines, such as have been recently built 
by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, for the Dom Pedro II. 
Railway in Brazil, have sufficient power. That company 
guarantees that three such engines, weighing sixty-five gross 
tons each, will haul the maximum sized vessel at the rate of 
fifteen miles an hour, if necessary, on grades up to twenty 
feet to the mile. The grades to be overcome at the Isthmus 
of Tehuantepec are very light. The larger part of the dis¬ 
tance is practically level ; there is one grade of one per cent. 
(52 8-10 feet per mile) twelve miles in length. 

The railway traverses a succession of valleys. In the hilly 
part of the Isthmus, in order to avoid heavy construction 
work, it is necessary to make abrupt changes of direction. 
As it would be impracticable to move a rigid carriage of such 
great length with a vessel upon it, around a sharp curve, 
these changes of direction, five in number, are made by float¬ 
ing turn-tables, which are simply great pontoons, or floating 
docks, placed in a segmental basin of masonry or concrete. 
When the vessel is drawn upon the pontoon the latter rests 
solidly upon the circular bearers in the bottom of the basin ; 
stability being given to it by the weight of water in it. In 
order to turn the pontoon to the new direction required, the 
water is pumped out of it sufficiently to just raise it from the 


22 


foundations on which it rests. It is then, while floating, 
turned about a central pivot ; although the weight does not 
rest upon the pivot, but entirely upon the water. When the 
pontoon is revolved so that the rails upon it coincide with the 
rails of the railway, in the new direction, the water is admit¬ 
ted to the pontoon and it again rests upon the circular bear¬ 
ers. The vessel is then hauled off the pontoon upon the rail¬ 
way. 

These turn-tables—with one at each terminal to accommo¬ 
date the business there—will be utilized for passing points, or 
sidings—so that while the railway is virtually a single track 
road, vessels may meet and pass each other. By laying 
radial tracks from these basins, vessels can be run out, as on 
marine railways, for cleaning, painting and repairing. About 
$1000 will thus be saved to the vessel over the cost of dock¬ 
ing in ports. Considerable work of this kind can also be done 
while the vessel is in transit. (See plates V. and VI.) 

The admissible lateral motion in the journals and on the 
treads of the wheels is sufficient to make a curve ol 20 miles 
radius perfectly practicable. The curves laid down on the 
location of the railway have radii varying from 20 to 53 miles. 
By these curves advantage is taken of the general lines of 
the country, and serious obstacles are avoided. 

A vertical curve at the changes of grade, of about the same 
radius, is admissible by utilizing the movement of the springs 
and the elasticity which the carriage and its burden have in 
a longitudinal direction. 

It is expected that the practicable speed will average eight 
or ten miles an hour, and it is intended to so construct the 
whole work, road-bed, rolling stock and other appliances as 
to make this speed perfectly safe. The whole distance is one 
hundred and thirty-four miles, and it is estimated that 
eighteen or twenty hours is amply sufficient to transfer the 
vessel from one ocean to the other. 

In laying out and constructing the road-bed, the possible 
future enlargement necessary for larger vessels, wider car¬ 
riages and greater traffic will be provided for by building the 
foundations sufficiently wide to permit double tracking the 
railway. The docks at the termini can also be duplicated, or 
even triplicated, when commerce demands it. 

There are, on either side of the Isthmus, capacious natural 
harbors, which with comparatively inexpensive improvements,, 
can be made ample for the accommodation of a very large 
fleet. The surveys of the Isthmus, which have been very ex¬ 
tensive and detailed, embracing all the information necessary 
for a reliable estimate, show that suitable materials are con¬ 
veniently at hand for constructing the work ; and that the 
total cost, including the improvements of the harbors, the 
mechanical appliances, rolling stock, a fyll equipment of 



PLAN 



SECTIONAL ELEVATION. 



















































































































































Flate VI •—A Steamer upon the Floating Turntable. 











































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































27 


everything necessary for operating the railway, will not be 
over $75,000,000—with a safe margin allowed for contingent 
expenses. 

It is impossible in a brief address to give all the details 
that may be necessary for a complete exposition of the me¬ 
chanical appliances to be used in the ship railway, but as the 
subject has been fully considered by a large number of prom¬ 
inent scientific and practical experts, their opinions will serve 
as corroborative proof of the practicability of the plans. 
Brief extracts only can here be given from, in many cases, 
lengthy opinions furnished by these experts. 

Sir Edward J. Reed, for many years chief constructor of 
the British Navy, who has given the matter much study, 
states: “ I affirm that the general structural strains which 
are likely to be brought upon a ship by lifting and transport¬ 
ing her, presuming, of course, that reasonable skill and care 
are applied to these processes, are inferior, much inferior to 
those strains to which every ocean-going ship is continually 
liable at sea. * * * As regards the comparative economy 

of transporting a ship’s cargo by canal or railway, I am in¬ 
clined to believe that the railway would prove the more eco¬ 
nomical of the two. * * * I have, therefore, no words 

but those of encouragement for a ship-railway, regarded from 
my point of view as a ship-builder, accustomed for a life time 
(which is getting now to be a long one) to the designing, 
building, repairing and docking of both wood and iron ships.” 

Mr. Nathaniel Barnaby, present chief constructor of the 
British Navy says: “I note, therefore,. the question you 
wish to put to me, which is : ‘ do I think the problem insol¬ 
uble of constructing a car on which a fully loaded ship can 
be safely transported over such a railway as could be built 
through a tolerably level country ? ’ In reply to this, I say 
not only that it is soluble, but that the solution is, in my 
opinion, fairly indicated in your plans as laid before the com¬ 
mittee on Interoceanic Canals and shown to me. Ships 
which would be strained by ordinary docking would be liable 
to be strained also when suspended on a car not specially de¬ 
signed for their crazy condition ; but such ships would be still 
more strained in their ordinary sea passages.” 

Mr. William John, recently scientific adviser of Lloyd’s 
Register, and Mr. Martell, present adviser of Lloyds, have 
both given unequivocally a favorable opinion of the ship 
railway. 

Mr. George Fosbury Lyster, Engineer-in-chief, Liverpool 
Docks, states: ‘‘I have now been able to give the whole 
matter, as far as its engineering features are concerned, very 
careful consideration, and have concluded that if the perma- 


\ 


28 


nent way, cradle arrangements, and general details are carried 
out in the ingenious and substantial manner you described, 
there will, in my judgment, be little or no difficulty in trans¬ 
porting properly constructed ships from sea to sea with entire 
convenience and safety.” 

Mr. John Fowler, who, as consulting engineer of the Egyp¬ 
tian government, projected a ship railway for the first cata¬ 
ract of the Nile, states : “ After a very careful investigation 

of the alternative plans of canal and ship railway on the spot, 

I decided in favor of the railway ; having satisfied myself 
that there was no mechanical difficulty in carrying ships of 
any size, without injury to themselves, on a properly designed 
car or cradle over a solidly constructed railway.” 

Mr. E. Leader Williams, Chief Engineer of the Manches¬ 
ter Ship Canal and of the Trent and Mersey Canal, and 
originator of the celebrated Anderton Hydraulic Canal Lift, 
states : “ I believe that your ship railway only requires carry¬ 
ing out into execution to prove most successful in every way.” 

Messrs. Clark and Standfield—Mr. Edwin Clark having been 
the chief assistant of Robert Stephenson in the building of 
the celebrated tubular bridge over the Menai Straits, and 
who introduced the hydraulic vertical lift system at the Vic¬ 
toria Docks, and at Malta and Bombay, say: “We appre¬ 
hend no difficulty in perfecting the necessary details of the 
plans, so as to insure the safe transportation of the largest 
loaded ships on the railway cars with absolute safety.” 

Emerson, Murgatroyd & Co., who, as contractors, built the 
hydraulic docks at Malta and Bombay, and the Anderton lift, 
say : “ We have no hesitation in guaranteeing the lifting of a 
fully loaded ship or steamer of 8,000 or 10,000 tons’ weight on 
a railway car from the sea or harbor level to that of your per¬ 
manent way in 30 minutes, with absolute safety to the ship 
and the works, where the lift is not over 50 feet vertically. 
We will undertake to construct all the plans and works neces¬ 
sary to do this at each end of your line, and complete every¬ 
thing ready for attaching the locomotive to the car on which 
the ship is to be lifted and transported ; this car, or any num¬ 
ber of them, we will furnish also.” 

Mr. William Pearce, sole proprietor of John Elder & Com¬ 
pany’s works, Govan, Glasgow, and who built the Arizona, 
Elbe, Alaska and Etruria, and others of the finest steamers 
afloat, says : 

“ I am of opinion from what I know of the working of iron 
floating docks that I have designed and built, that iron steam¬ 
ers of 4,000 to 5,000 tons displacement may be docked, loaded, 


29 


without any injury whatever. It is also my opinion that a 
ship railway for vessels of this size may be constructed and 
worked successfully, provided the land is solid and the line 
moderately level." 

Mr. B. Baker, one of the ablest engineers of England, and 
at present chief engineer of the great bridge now being con¬ 
structed at the Firth of Forth, states : 

“ The general laws affecting the strength of materials ap¬ 
ply to iron and steel ships as to other metallic structures, and 
in order to show that any of the above injuries could result, 
I have satisfied myself, by long and careful investigation, it 
is first necessary to assume either criminal negligence or a 
singularly badly designed car. In other words, apart from 
all practical experience in dry docks and elsewhere, it can be 
theoretically demonstrated that a vessel which would not 
break up at sea in an ordinary gale, would not be injured by 
transport in a well-constructed car, on a suitably formed 
railway." 

Professor Francis Elgar, Fellow of the Royal School of 
Naval Architecture, and until recently general manager of 
Earle’s Ship Building and Engineering Company, and a 
naval architect of recognized ability, states : 

“ As to transporting a loaded vessel by railway over a tol¬ 
erably level country, I see no reason to prevent rails being 
laid and a cradle constructed to run upon it that will carry a 
loaded ship at a moderate speed through the country with¬ 
out risk of injury. The cradle will require to be arranged 
so that the bottom of the ship shall receive continuous sup¬ 
port over as much of its surface as possible, and it should be 
practicable to do this so that any straining caused by this 
railway transport will not exceed that met with by ships 
under the other conditions of their employment." 

There are also strong favorable opinions to be found on 
this side of the water, from men of acknowledged scientific 
and practical ability and experience. The late Edward Hartt, 
United States Naval Constructor, states : 

“With a substantial road-bed for your railway, on the easy 
grades across Tehuantepec, which, I understand, do not ex¬ 
ceed one or two feet in the hundred, there can be no mechan¬ 
ical difficulty in the way of transporting loaded ships by 
railroad with entire safety to the vessel, whether they be built 
of wood or iron. The ship railway plan possesses the advan¬ 
tage of more rapid transit for the vessels, and its capacity 
could easily be increased to meet the future wants of com¬ 
merce." 


30 


Mr. H. L. Fernald, Naval Constructor, U. S. N., states : 

“ Having carefully examined the plans and papers pertain¬ 
ing to your proposed ship railway across the Isthmus of Te¬ 
huantepec, I do not hesitate to say that in my judgment there 
will be no difficulty whatever in transporting, in the manner 
you propose, any properly built vessel with absolute safety.” 

Gen. Q. A. Gilmore, U. S. Army, states : 

“ In my judgment the construction of a ship railway across 
the Mexican Isthmus, in general accordance with your plan, 
is not only feasible as an engineering problem, but the suc¬ 
cessful maintenance and operation of such a road is entirely 
practicable as a business enterprise.” 

Col. Henry Flad, C. E., well known from his connection 
with the construction of the St. Louis bridge and other im¬ 
portant works, states : 

“First. That the first cost of the construction of a ship 
railroad will not be one-fourth of that of a ship canal. 

“Second. That a ship railroad can be constructed in prob¬ 
ably one-third of the time required to construct a canal. 

“Third. That ships can be transported on such a railroad 
with absolute safety, and with the same dispatch as through 
a canal. 

“Fourth. That the cost of maintenance will be less for a 
railroad than for the canal. * * * 

“Fifth. That the ship railroad will, therefore, offer a safer 
and better investment for capital.” 

Commodore R. W. Shufeldt, U. S. N., states: 

“I forward to you with great pleasure, an extract of a let¬ 
ter from Commodore Farquhar, commanding United States 
ship ‘ Quinnebaug,’ at present at Alexandria, Egypt. 

* * * * * * * 

“‘I am of the opinion that Tehuantepec possesses the best 
route for transit. I do not see why a railroad capable of car¬ 
rying a ship could not be built, and why the long slopes of 
our route should not be best. 

“‘The fact of a harbor twenty-five miles long, on the At¬ 
lantic side, is of the utmost importance, more so than the one 
on the Pacific shore, because that is almost always a weather 
shore in that latitude.’ 

“I send you the extract as a disinterested opinion of an 
accomplished naval officer, not only as to the advantages of 
the route of Tehuantepec, but as to the practicability of a 
ship railway across the Isthmus.” 

Gen. G. T. Beauregard states : 

“ I feel no hesitancy in saying, that I see no difficulty in 
constructing a railway strong enough to carry out the object 


31 


referred to. It is only a question of the strength of the cra¬ 
dle to hold the ship, and the division of weight on a sufficient 
number of rails and wheels, which can certainly be accom¬ 
plished by any engineer of ability and ingenuity. As to the 
danger a loaded ship would incur in being transported on a 
smooth and well.built railway, it is all imaginary.” 

H. D. Whitcomb, C. E., formerly member of the commis¬ 
sion which decided in favor of the jetties at the mouth of 
the Mississippi river, and an engineer of recognized ability, 
states : 

“Why should not your ship railway be practicable ? Ships 
have been hauled on marine railways for I know not how 
many years, and the hauling of larger ships a longer distance 
is only a development or expansion of this practice, as the 
steel roadway worked by locomotives is the development of 
the tramway, or the old incline worked by stationary power. 
The idea is worthy of the age, and to make it a success you 
have simply to improve and expand the details of the old 
marine railway and make it more perfect.” 

Very decided and favorable opinions have also been given 
in writing by Gen. Wm. Sooy Smith, C. E., Col. C. Shaler 
Smith, C. E., B. M. Harrod, C. E., and Prof. E. A. Fuertes of 
Cornell University, who under Com. Shufeldt made the sur¬ 
vey of the Tehuantepec Isthmus for a canal. Many other 
experts of acknowledged ability have given their approval of 
the ship railway method and their belief in its entire prac¬ 
ticability. We wish to add to the above the following letters 
recently received, one from Capt. A. K. Miller, agent of the 
Inman Steamship Company, at New Orleans, and well known 
in that section of the country as a practical expert, and one 
also from Mr. Epes Sargent, which speaks for itself: 

“A. K. Miller & Co., Ship and Steamship Agents, 

“37 Carondelet Street, New Orleans, June 18, 1885. 

“ E. L. Corthell, Esq., 34 Nassau Street, New York. 

“ Dear Sir :—I am in receipt of your esteemed letter of the 15th 
inst., and am much pleased to note you are quite well, and trust 
your enterprise will meet that support which it so justly deserves. 

“In this connection, permit me to make some observations regard¬ 
ing your railway project for the transportation of ships across the 
Isthmus. 

“ As a practical seaman and commander of ships for many years, 
during which time I have had the occasion to raise and repair large 
ships in different styles of docks, marine railways, etc., I had formed, 
or rather had come to the conclusion that to raise a loaded ship in 
the manner proposed by Capt. Eads, and to transport her as sug¬ 
gested, would subject the ship to such strain that it would be simply 
impracticable, and could not succeed. 


32 


“ While your ship railway model was on exhibition at this city, T 
visited it on several occasions, and after a thorough examination! 
of the manner of raising, application of rams and distribution of 
lifting power, I have but one opinion regarding the question—which 
is, that ships of the largest class, loaded with full cargoes can be 
safely lifted, and transported in the manner proposed without sub¬ 
jecting them to any more strain than they would undergo during a 
sea passage, and in fact much less fatigue than they would encounter 
during gales of wind such as ships are at times subjected to in all 
oceans of the world. I trust you will be enabled to push your work 
to a speedy and successful issue. Your ship railway would largely 
develop trade in this quarter of the globe, and would also increase 
shipments and traffic from the Pacific coast. 

“ Very truly yours, A. K. Miller.” 


“ Washington, June 25, 1885. 

“ E. L. Corthell, Esq., 

“Dear Sir:—Your letter of the 15th inst. came duly to hand. 
Sickness and excess of business must be my excuse for delay in 
answering. 

“ In reply to your questions, I would state that I was Manager and 
Superintendent of the Marine Railway at Nassau, N. P., Bahamas,, 
for ten years, and during that time—as near as I can remember—I 
hauled out and repaired between 800 and 900 vessels, about one- 
third of which were steamers, and perhaps one-fifth of them loaded. 

“ As we charged so much per ton for cargo on board, as far as- 
practicable the vessels were discharged before being taken out. 

“ My experience was that it was easier and safer to take out a 
loaded vessel than one in ballast. The railway was about 800 feet. 
long, and similar in all respects to your model, the principle being 
the same. There was not one dollar’s damage done to any vessel in 
hauling out while I had charge of the railway. 

“ This, I believe, answers all your questions. 

“ Yours respectfully, Epes Sargf.nt, 

“ 338 Penna. Avenue.” 

The whole subject was very thoroughly canvassed by two- 
committees of the 46th Congress, who presented strong favor¬ 
able reports in favor of the practicability and advantages of 
the Tehuantepec Ship Railway. The Senate Committee 
summed up the evidence as follows :— 

“ The testimony upon the subject is so overwhelming and 
conclusive in its character that the Committee has no hesita¬ 
tion in reporting that the construction of a ship railway and 
its successful operation are entirely practicable.” 

It should be stated that other ship railways have been pro¬ 
jected ; one, as early as 1872, by Messrs. Brunlees and Webb, 
civil engineers, of Great Britain, to be built across British' 
Honduras, on the American Isthmus, the plans for which 



33 


were quite well perfected. Mr. John Fowler designed one 
for the transfer of vessels at the Third Cataract of the Nile. 
Mr. H. G. C. Ketchum, Mem. Inst. C. E., Great Britain, has 
not only projected a ship railway across the Isthmus of 
Chignecto, between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but 
has obtained from the Dominion government a concession by 
which that government guarantees what is equivalent to 
about seven per cent, net revenue per annum, on the esti¬ 
mated cost of the railway, for twenty years. 

It remains now to show very briefly the great advantage of 
the ship railway over any other known method of Isthmian 
transit. The essential principles involved with many corrob¬ 
orating facts in proof, have been stated recently by us in a 
paper read before the American Society of Civil Engineers, 
at its annual convention, in June of this year, on the subject 
of “ Canals and Railroads, Ship Canals and Ship Railways.” 
We invite your attention to this paper for more detailed 
information. 

About two thousand miles of canals in the United States, 
nearly one-half of all that have been built, have been aban¬ 
doned. These abandoned canals cost originally nearly fifty 
million dollars. This fact alone proves that the ordinary 
canal cannot compete with an ordinary railway. The cause 
of their failure to perform, at this day, what is required of a 
means of transportation it is not difficult to find. 

The movement of a boat in the restricted channel of a 
barge or ship canal is entirely different from its movement in 
the unrestricted water-way of the ocean. Assuming that the 
economical speed of a canal boat is two miles per hour, which 
is about correct, a speed of six miles per hour would require 
twenty-seven times as much expenditure of power ; that is, 
experiment and actual practice in many carefully noted 
instances show that the power required to move the boat in 
a canal increases as the cubes of the velocities. To those who 
desire to examine this matter further, there will be found all 
through the proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 
of Great Britain, and in the reports on Canals and Railways 
before the British Parliament, abundant statements and illus¬ 
trations, given by some of the best practical and acknowl¬ 
edged experts of the world, confirming our assertions. Such 
men as Prof. Barlow, Robert Stephenson, Mr. Bidder, Sir 
Robert Rawlinson, Sir John Hawkshaw, and Sir John Rennie, 
may be quoted as authority for the statement that canals 
cannot compete with railways. In an experiment made by 
Sir John Rennie, on the Grand Junction Canal, it was found 
that with a light boat of only nine inches draught, seventy 
feet long and four feet wide only, the power required increased 
twenty-four fold in increasing the speed from two and a half 
to twelve miles an hour. 


34 


The boat or steamer in its passage through the water in a 
restricted channel, creates a hill up which it is constantly 
climbing ; the more rapid the speed the steeper the hill. 
Thus the boat is absolutely compelled to move at a very slow 
speed ; in fact it would be almost impossible to attain in a 
canal its normal ocean speed. 

In his annual address, as President, to the Institution of 
Civil Engineers of Great Britain, in 1846, Sir John Rennie, 
speaking of the attempts to obtain speed on the canals with¬ 
out largely increasing the power, said : “ All this, however, 

came too late, for although it would have been readily 
acknowledged at an earlier period, and might, perhaps, for a 
while have retarded the railway system, yet when once the 
latter was established its superiority became manifest and its 
progress became irresistible. Taken simply at the velocity 
of two and a half miles per hour, the resistance, or friction, 
offered to the tractive power by a given load is in favor of the 
canal, but as this resistance increases with velocity at a far 
greater ratio on the canal than on the railway, the advantage 
with the increased velocity becomes decidedly in favor of the 
railway.” 

Since 1846, railway engineers and managers have learned 
to build and operate with greater economy. Greater concen¬ 
trated power has been applied to the locomotive, larger cars 
have come into use, steel rails have lessened the wear and 
tear of the track and the rolling stock, more suitable and im¬ 
proved running gear have reduced the axle friction, and 
great improvements in the locomotive have still more less¬ 
ened the friction of power. What was considered a locomo¬ 
tive giant hauling on a level a few five-ton “ goods wagons ” 
in 1846, would be a baby compared with the new “ Decapod ” 
of the Baldwin Locomotive Works already spoken of. The 
principal dimensions of this monster locomotive are as fol¬ 
lows : Boiler, 64m. in diameter ; cylinders, 22x26m. ; total 
heating surface, 1942 sq. ft. ; weight of the locomotive and 
tender in working order, 102 net tons. The capacity of this 
powerful engine is stated by the manufacturers to be 3600 
gross tons on a level and straight track. 

The cost of hauling freight has been so much reduced by 
the numberless improvements on the railroads that 6-10 of a 
mill per ton per mile has been found to cover the cost of fuel, 
stores, train hands and repairs to locomotives. The load ca¬ 
pacity of cars has increased from about 20,000 pounds in 1876 
to 60,000 pounds in 1885. The weight of the cars, however, 
has increased less than 2000 pounds. In these two facts will 
be found the most important reasons for the reduction in the 
cost, of late years, of hauling freight on railways. It also 
goes to show what can be accomplished if this tendency is 


35 


carried out to its legitimate extent. We believe the time 
will come, and that, too, at no distant day, when, instead of 
the comparatively small box, moving on two rails, in which 
freight is now carried, there will be hauled on the railways the 
immense cargo box, covering four or six rails, with a capacity 
of three million pounds, and when that day arrives freight will 
be hauled for two-tenths of a mill per ton per mile, and will 
not cost over one mill for the entire cost of operation, main¬ 
tenance and general expenses. There has also been a great 
reduction in the cost of repairs to locomotives. On the Penn¬ 
sylvania Railroad the cost has been reduced between 1865 
and 1881 from $16.48 to $6.02 per one hundred miles run. 
The mileage of locomotives has increased from 19,240 in 1870 
to 27,644 in 1881, and the average ton mileage of the locomo¬ 
tive has increased from 2,100,000 to 5,000,000. The three 
main trunk lines into New York City from the West moved, 
in 1883, 46,177,223 tons of freight, increasing the amount over 
four-fold since 1868 ; but the New York State canals in the 
same period decreased in the volume of freight from 6,442,225 
tons to 5,664,056 tons. The least expensive method of towing 
on the canal is more expensive than the hauling on the best 
railways. The running expense on the Erie Canal at an av¬ 
erage speed of 2.1 miles per hour, is / mill per ton per mile 
on freight hauled by steam canal boat with consort, the least 
expensive method of any by canal. Including all expenses, 
except terminal cost and maintenance of canal, the expense 
is 3.15 mills per ton. Even this cost is based on full loads 
both ways, for the boats cannot be run except at a loss, if 
they are sent even one way partially loaded. On Belgian 
Canals the cost of towing alone is nearly 5 mills per ton per 
mile, and on the Willebroeck Canal in England, with six to 
seven boats in a tow, steam towing costs 2 mills per ton run¬ 
ning cost. These and many similar facts are gathered from 
a careful study of the cost of moving freight on canals and 
railways in England, France, Belgium and the United States. 
Successful competition of canals with railways is only possible 
when the State builds, maintains and operates the canals free 
of cost to the boatmen—and even then it is a difficult task. 

In a letter dated August 3, 1885, from a prominent railway 
manager, is the following sentence : “If the tonnage which 
passes through this canal (Erie) was delivered for transport¬ 
ation to the West Shore Railway, it could be hauled and de¬ 
livered more cheaply than by the water route, and in less 
than one-quarter of the time.” 

Grain is now being hauled from Chicago to Atlantic ports 
by the all rail route for three mills per ton mile. 

These comparative facts and opinions are given to show 
the vast superiority of the ordinary railroad over the ordinary 


86 


barge canal in dispatch, economy and adaptability to the 
wants of transportation. 

If we extend the comparison and examine the relative 
merits of ship canals and ship railways, we will find a still 
greater difference in favor of the latter. The resistance to 
the movement of the vessel still exists, but in a greater de¬ 
gree ; a larger mass moves through a comparatively more re¬ 
stricted channel. The following from London Engineering , 
February I, I884, discussing the effects of navigation in a 
contracted water-way, will give scientific confirmation of our 
statement : 

“ It is a universally recognized fact that vessels steer bet¬ 
ter, are more easily propelled and are altogether more man¬ 
ageable when moving through a capacious water-way. 

“ The vessel in motion has to be forced through the water, 
and the particles are thus pressed one against the other and, 
in confined spaces, against the bottom and sides. Thus a 
greater friction is kept up, which reacts upon the hull, dead¬ 
ens her speed and at the same time prevents an equable flow 
of water to her rudder, and in the case of a screw, to the pro¬ 
peller also ; as a consequence the vessel becomes unmanage¬ 
able. 

“ When a craft going even at moderate speed ‘ smells the 
bottom,’ as the term is, she probably ends in running ashore 
athwart the navigation.” 

Mr. Scott Russell, in his “ Marine Architecture,” page 237, 
speaking of the resistance to a vessel in passing through the 
restricted channel of a canal, says, “ The consequences- of 
this rapid increase of head accumulation ” (in front of the ves¬ 
sel,) “are very serious.” 

“ First.—It throws the ship’s head up out of trim. Next.— 
It increases the pressure of water on her bow. Third.—It 
makes her travel up hill. Fourth.—It produces a backward 
current along her sides ; and these hindrances to speed accu¬ 
mulate rapidly, much more rapidly, than as the square of the 
resistance,” (the rule on the ocean,) “ until the amount may 
become insuperable ; that is, many times the resistance due 
to the law of the square of the speed.” 

He proves by actual experiments that the additional resist¬ 
ance to that in a free water-way increases between 1 mile 
and 7 31-32 miles per hour, from ^-7 of a pound, or ton, to 
128, 

“ It is now necessary to notice a complimentary effect to 
that of accumulation in advance of the vessel—it is subsidence 
of water astern. It being known, that the excavated water is 
sent on in advance of the vessel, it becomes plain that the 
channel out of which this water has been taken must have its 


37 


height lowered by the subsidence of the water into the vacant 
canal out of which the ship has been drawn.” 

In the Welland Ship Canal the speed is one mile per hour, 
and the same on the North Holland Ship Canal to the port 
of Amsterdam.—(Internal Commerce U. S., 1885, p. 494.) 

In the Suez Canal—the most important ship canal in the 
world, the time required to pass through, one hundred miles, 
was fifty hours, in 1884—or at a rate of two miles per hour. 
The average time of an undisturbed passage, in 1884, was 
38^2 hours. About 25 per cent, of the distance is through 
deep lakes and 40 per cent, through shallow lakes—only 35 
per cent, being through dry excavations. The speed by reg¬ 
ulation is limited to five knots, but this is a dangerous one for 
steamers, for they are liable to run aground. From 1870 to 
1883, eleven per cent, of all vessels went aground. 

It was stated in evidence before the Canal Committee of 
Parliament that in 1882 the passage of ten ships through the 
canal would choke it. The economical speed in a restricted 
channel of the canals proposed for the American isthmus is 
not over two miles per hour, and the relative running cost 
per ton per mile in the ship canal and on the ocean is as three 
mills to one-half mill, (Six to one.) 

In comparing the four methods—canals, railroads, ship 
canals and ship railways—it may be stated that from three to 
four mills per ton per mile will cover the entire cost of moving 
freight on a well-managed railroad in this country, at the 
present time. This cost includes the numerous and expen¬ 
sive handlings of the goods, and the local as well as through 
freights. The cost of handling goods is approximately the 
same as the cost of hauling for distances up to one hundred 
miles ; hence the immense advantage of the ship railway over 
the ordinary railway is seen at once in this particular. The 
method we have described to you, involves no handling ; the 
hatchways are not even opened. Another great advantage 
over ordinary railways, is, that more goods are carried at one 
time, thus economizing power and labor ; instead of a car 
moving 15 tons, as ordinarily on railroads, we have one car 
carrying, say 1800 tons. All the expenses per ton will con¬ 
sequently be largely reduced. Another fact works to the ad- 
advantage of the ship railway, viz. : friction on journals in¬ 
creases but little with the additional weight imposed upon 
them. The ordinary railway places about three tons on a 
wheel, but the ship railway six to nine tons. The detailed 
estimate of the cost of hauling freight on the ship railway 
shows that it can be hauled from ocean to ocean for less than 
30 cents per ton, allowing for maintenance, renewals, termi¬ 
nal expenses, turn-tables, locomotives, telegraph and inci- 


4 


38 


dental and general expenses, in fact all expenses, except 
interest on capital. 

j |In reference to the comparative cost of construction of the 
ship railway and the projected canals on the Isthmus, it is 
difficult to give any precise facts, on account of the great dis¬ 
crepancy that exists between the canal estimates. The cost 
of the Nicaragua Canal by various estimates lies somewhere 
between forty-one million and two hundred million dollars ; 
the Panama Canal was to have been constructed for one hun¬ 
dred and twenty-five million dollars, but as one hundred mil- . 
lion and more has been expended, and not ten per cent, of 
the excavation has been made it is evident that the final cost 
will largely exceed the original estimates. It is not our pur¬ 
pose to draw detailed comparisons between these three 
methods proposed, but simply to show what can be done by 
the ship railway method, and the great superiority of the 
route over any other possible one. The objections to the two 
routes and methods above mentioned are briefly, as follows : 

First. —The Panama Sea Level Canal. 

1. Its immense cost makes it financially impracticable. 

2. The cost of maintenance will be very great, especially the re¬ 
moval of the material washed into the canal from the enormous 
slopes of the excavations under the excessive rainfall of this tropical 
country. 

3. The control of the torrential Chagres river will be not only 
very expensive but doubtful. The possible breaking away of the 
dams and guard banks of its new channel, which is to suspend the 
torrent in the air, would be simply ruinous to the canal. 

4. A tide lock on the Pacific—where the range of the tides is 
often 24 feet—the narrow restricted channel with its steep slopes, 
often rough and rocky, and the sharp curves in its alignment will 
make the passage slow, difficult and dangerous. 

5. The long detour for ships, made necessary by its unfortunate 
location at the southern extremity of the Isthmus, will be very 
inconvenient and expensive to commerce. 

G. Located in a region always avoided by navigators, on account 
of its prevailing calms, sailing commerce will be prevented from 
using it. 

7. The unstable government and the insurrectionary character of 
the people, through whose country it is to be built, will lead to 
serious complications with other governments and danger to the 
integrity of the passageway. 

Second .— The Nicaragua Canal. 

1. The most carefully considered estimate of the cost of this 
work, made by Maj.W. McFarland, U. S. Engineers, is $140,000,000, 
with labor assumed at $1.00 per day; whereas the experience at 
Panama shows that the cost of labor should be doubled , increasing 
the estimate to at least $200,000,000. 


39 


1 he cost of restoring the ruined harbor at Greytown on the 
Caribbean Sea, is estimated by Maj. McFarland, at $ 9 , 000 , 000 ; and 
of making a harbor at Brito, on the Pacific, $ 5 , 000 , 000 . The main¬ 
tenance of the former, especially its approach and entrance, will be 
very difficult and expensive. 

3 . It great length, 181 ^- miles; the locks—seven to twenty in 
number—required to lift the vessels over a summit of about 110 
feet, and the restricted channel through which they must steam or 
be towed, will prevent an average speed of three miles per hour for 
the whole distance, including even the greater speed possible in the 
lake and adjacent river channel at the summit level. It will 
therefore require about two and one-half days to pass through this 
canal. 

4 . The location of this canal is 800 miles south of Tehuantepec, 
making the route about 1500 miles longer than that by the Ship 
Railway for all commerce between our Gulf and Pacific ports. 

5 . Its location in a feeble Central American State, liable at any 
time to be embroiled with its neighbors and the integrity of the transit 
threatened. 

The Ship Railway is above the floods and built upon the 
surface of the ground, and is therefore not subject to those 
conditions that often render the maintenance of works expen¬ 
sive and sometimes impracticable ; it is capable of indefinite 
enlargement ; the cost of moving vessels is less than the cost 
of steaming or towing through either of the canals. 

A very liberal concession was granted for the ship railway 
by the Mexican Government, May 28, 1881. 

It provides for the construction and operation for ninety- 
nine years of a ship railway with its corresponding lines of 
telegraph across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The right of 
way r is granted eight hundred metres wide, reduced in town 
lands to four hundred metres, and increased where stations 
are necessary to sixteen hundred metres. The public lands 
within this belt are conceded gratis to the company. Full 
authority is given for the prompt condemnation of all private 
lands needed. Four thousand two hundred square kilometres 
of public lands, equal to a million acres, are granted in aid of 
the enterprise. The right is given to import free of duty all 
kinds of machinery, instruments, coal and materials neces¬ 
sary for the construction, operation and maintenance of the 
works during ninety-nine years. 

Vessels, passengers and merchandise in transit, will be 
free of all kinds of duties, general as well as local, during the 
time of the concession. 

The property and capital invested in the enterprise, its 
bonds and shares of stock are exempted from all taxation or 
contribution of any kind, except that of revenue stamps, the 
Constitution of Mexico prohibiting the release of the latter 
tax by Congress. 


40 


Authority is given to collect a maximum toll on each ves¬ 
sel not exceeding five dollars per cubic metre, for each 
metre contained in a parallelopipedon. of which the dimen¬ 
sions shall be the greatest length and the greatest breadth of 
the vessel measured at the surface of the water, and her 
greatest immersed depth. This would be about $8.00 per 
ton on the cargo carried. For each passenger carried across, 
a sum not exceeding $15.00 may be charged. 

Gold and silver and precious stones may be charged a 
maximum rate not greater than one per cent, of their value. 

The right is granted to collect wharfage dues and tonnage 
dues not exceeding $1.00 per registered ton. 

Passage over the railway shall be open for all the vessels 
of all the nations not at war with Mexico, and the Republic 
binds itself not to close to ocean commerce during the term 
of the concession either of the two terminal ports of the ship 
railway, one in the Gulf, the other in the Pacific, except in 
case of war. 

In consideration of the magnitude of the work, the com¬ 
pany may obtain aid from any foreign government either in 
money or in guarantees, and hypothecate the net revenues to 
it, and may transport its mails, ships, property, and appurten¬ 
ances free of charges, and may reduce the tariffs on its com¬ 
merce, and the prices of passage. 

In the event of failure on the part of the company to com¬ 
ply with any such stipulations made with a foreign govern¬ 
ment, such foreign government shall have the right to enforce 
its claims before the courts of Mexico, in accordance with the 
laws of Mexico, but in no case can such foreign government 
acquire the ownership of the works, or the rights emanating 
therefrom. 

In the proposition now before the governments of the 
United States and Mexico, and which has been accepted by 
the latter, the Ship Railway Company agrees to complete the 
Ship Railway and put it into successful operation with private 
capital ; and having done this to the satisfaction of commis¬ 
sioners appointed by these two governments, it asks that a 
guarantee of a net revenue of $3,750,000 shall be given for 
fifteen years, Mexico to assume one-third, or $1,250,000 of 
this amount, and the United States two-thirds, or $2,500,000. 
To avoid any misunderstanding, the net revenue is fixed at 
fifty per cent, of the gross receipts of the railway. During 
these fifteen years, which is estimated to be the time required 
to build up a large traffic over the ship railway, any deficiency 
in the net revenue of $3,750,000 will be made up by these two 
governments, one-third by Mexico and two-thirds by the 
United States. If, for instance, during any one year there 
shall be earned a net revenue of $3,000,000, these two govern¬ 
ments will make up the deficiency of $750,000 ; but if during 


41 


any one year the net revenue should amount to more than 
$375°>°00, a certain part of the excess will be refunded to 
the two governments, and this will be continued until any 
advances made by them shall be fully paid back into their 
treasuries. Thus the amount which may possibly be paid 
under the guarantee will not be a bonus but a reimbursable 
loan, the security for the payment of which will be the re¬ 
ceipts of the ship railway until the whole amount is refunded. 
Mexico and the United States will each have a representation 
of two-ninths in the board of directors of the railway com¬ 
pany to guard their interests. In consideration of the guar¬ 
antee, the Ship Railway Company proposes to give an advan¬ 
tage to the coast-wise commerce of these two countries over 
that of any other nation, by transporting their ships for 
25 per cent, less tolls than is charged to the commerce of 
any other nation, and this is to be continued for thirty 
years after the opening of the railway. Mexico has given 
certain other advantages not included in the the original 
concession. One of these is the donation of a large amount 
of public lands, increasing the original amount to three 
and three-quarter million acres, equal in area to one-half the 
State of New Jersey ; and another advantage is the right to 
import coal free of duty for the supply of steamers in transit. 

The commercial advantage of the Tehuantepec Ship Rail¬ 
way may be seen from the present expense of shipping goods 
by the various routes. The cost of freight from San Fran¬ 
cisco to New York, by the Cape Horn route, is $10.00 to 
$15.00 per ton ; on grain to Liverpool an average of $16.00 ; 
over the Panama railroad $20.00 to $25.00 ; over the trans¬ 
continental railroads, $25.00 to $30. The Tehuantepec route 
will save one-half the distance over the Cape Horn route, 
and will practically reduce the cost one-half. The saving in 
distance on the main routes of commerce by the Tehuantepec 
route may be seen by the following table of comparative dis¬ 
tances, compiled by the United States Coast Survey : 


TABLE OF COMPARATIVE DISTANCES IN STATUTE I LES. 


Total 

Distance. 

FROM NEW YORK TO HONG KONG. 


Via Cape Horn. 20,379 miles. 

Cape of Good Hope.16,945 “ 

Suez Canal.13,596 “ 

Panama R. R.12,953 “ 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec...11,602 “ 


NEW YORK TO YOKOHAMA. 

Via Cape Horn . 

Cape of Good Hope. 

Suez Canal ... 

Panama R. R. . 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

NEW YORK TO AUCKLAND, N. Z. 

Via Suez Canal. 

Cape of Good Hope. 

Cape Horn.... 

Panama R. R. 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec . 


NEW YORK TO MELBOURNE. 

Via Cape Horn .15,215 “ 

Suez Canal. 15,171 “ 

Cape of Good Hope. 15,019 “ 

Panama R. R . ... .11,826 “ 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec...11,065 “ 

NEW YORK TO HONOLULU. 

Via Cape Horn.15,826 “ 

Panama R. R. . 7,939 “ 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec .. 6,663 “ 

NEW YORK TO SAN FRANCISCO. 

Via Cape Horn.15,687 “ 

Panama R. R. 6,063 “ 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec.. 4,890 “ 

LIVERPOOL TO HONG KONG. 

Via Cape Horn .. 20,606 “ 

Panama R. R. 16,471 “ 

Cape of Good Hope. 15,722 “ 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec.15,253 “ 

LIVERPOOL TO YOKOHAMA. 

Via Cape Horn....19,400 “ 

Cape of Good Hope.17,653 “ 

Panama R. R.14,540 “ 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec .13,455 “ 

LIVERPOOL TO AUCKLAND, N. Z. 

Via Cape of Good Hope..16,221 “ 

Suez Canal..14,645 “ 

Cape Horn.13,897 J ‘ 

Panama R. R. 13,312 “ 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec.12,809 “ 


.16,871 “ 
.16,719 “ 

.13,890 “ 

.10,305 “ 
. 9,424 “ 


.19,802 “ 
.18,085 “ 
.15,527 “ 
.11,256 “ 

.10,006 “ 


Excess over 
Tehuantepec 
Route. 


8,777 miles. 
5,343 “ 
1,994 “ 

1,351 “ 


9,796 “ 
8,079 “ 

5,521 “ 

1,250 “ 


7,447 “ 

7,295 “ 

4,466 “ 
881 “ 


4,150 “ 
4,106 « 
3,954 “ 
761 “ 


9,163 “ 
1,276 “ 


10,797 “ 
1,173 “ 


5,353 “ 
1,218 “ 
469 “ 


5,945 “ 
4,198 “ 
1,085 “ 


3,412 “ 
1,836 “ 
1,088 “ 
503 “ 










































43 


TABLE OF COMPARATIVE DISTANCES IN STATUTE MILES. 


Total 


LIVERPOOL TO SAN FRANCISCO. 

Via Cape Horn.15,803 miles. 

Panama R. R. 8,885 “ 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 8,276 “ 

NEW ORLEANS TO HONG KONG. 

Via Cape Horn.20,804 “ 

Cape of Good Hope.17,485 

Suez Canal .15,108 “ 

Panama R. R.12,308 “ 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec.10,273 * 

NEW ORLEANS TO YOKOHAMA. 

Via Cape Horn. 20,227 “ 

Cape of Good Hope.18,025 “ 

Suez Canal.,.17,039 “ 

Panama R. R. 10,611 “ 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 8,637 “ 

NEW ORLEANS TO AUCKLAND, N. Z. 

Via Suez Canal.18,381 “ 

Cape of Good Hope. 17,259 “ 

Cape Horn. 14,314 “ 

Panama R. R. 9,659 “ 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 8,095 “ 

NEW ORLEANS TO MELBOURNE. 

Via Suez Canal . ,16,683 “ 

Cape Horn. 15,640 “ 

Cape of Good Hope.15,560 “ 

Panama R. R.11,181 “ 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 9,736 “ 

NEW ORLEANS TO HONOLULU. 

Via Cape Horn.16,251 “ 

Panama R. R. 7,294 “ 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 5,334 “ 

NEW ORLEANS TO SAN FRANCISCO. 

Via Cape Horn.16,112 “ 

Panama R R. 5,418 “ 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec..3,561 “ 

NEW YORK TO VALPARAISO. 

Via Cape Horn . .. .. 10,051 

Panama R. R.. 5,417 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 6,369 “ 

• 

NEW ORLEANS TO VALPARAISO. 

Via Cape Horn.10,476 

Panama R. R. 4,772 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec.5,040 


Excess over 
Tehuantepec 
Route. 


7,527 miles. 
609 “ 


10,531 “ 

7,212 “ 
4,835 “ 
2,035 “ 


11,590 “ 
9,988 " 
8,402 “ 
1,974 “ 


10,286 “ 
9,164 “ 
6,219 “ 
1,564 “ 


6,947 “ 
5,904 “ 
5,824 “ 
1,445 “ 


10,917 “ 
1,960 “ 


12,551 ‘ 
1,857 ‘ 


3,682 “ 


5,436 “ 








































44 


The Tehuantepec Route has some special advantages :—The 
great increase in wheat production on the Pacific coast and the still 
more rapid development certain to follow the opening of the Ship 
Railway, give an assurance that fully one-quarter of the tonnage will 
be wheat. On account of remaining so long in the tropics the 
Underwriters are not willing to insure it except in bags, which cost 
$2,000,000 per annum, or $1.51 per ton, or 4 cents per bushel. This 
expense can be saved by the Tehuantepec Route, for it is scarcely 
further south than the Florida straits. The average extra cost per 
ton by the longer distance and time required by the Panama and 
Nicaragua Routes, is 50 cents. This saving is made on both steam¬ 
ers and sailing ships. Thus we have a total advantage of $2.01 per 
ton, saying nothing of the excess in cost of canal over ship railway 
transportation. 

Another important commercial advantage is seen from the follow¬ 
ing facts : First. The distance from New York to the Pacific at 
Tehuantepec is nearly iooo miles shorter than across the continent. 
Second. Seventy per cent, of the far Pacific trade is from countries 
lying south of Tehuantepec. Third. The distance from Liverpool to 
many Pacific ports is shorter by Tehuantepec than by Suez. The 
present through business by the trans-continental railroads, from 
countries west of San Francisco, is comparatively unimportant, and 
it is so, and must remain so, from the fact that the Suez and Cape 
Horn routes have the advantage by not requiring trans-shipment. 
These latter and the Panama Railroad are the routes that the Ship 
Railway will compete with successfully, and from which it will draw 
an immense business. When the ship railway is opened the trans¬ 
continental railroads will find in the Pacific States—so importantly to 
be benefited by it—and in the vast and rapidly developed country 
which they traverse, all the business they can handle—business that 
has its source in the country lying between the Atlantic and Pacific, 
and which the ship railway can never reach. '1'here is, therefore, no 
rivalry between the two. The real rivalry will be with routes with 
which the railroads cannot possibly compete. 

Another important consideration is the strategic advantages which 
the Isthmus of 'Tehuantepec has over any other possible route. It 
is located nearest to the United States ; it is in the Republic of 
Mexico, the strongest Republic, next to the United States, on the 
American continent and connected with us not only by strong politi¬ 
cal and social ties, but also commercially by lines of railroads built 
and building from our country into and through it, and by several 
steamship lines to its ports in the Gulf and on the Pacific. 

The Atlantic terminus of the ship railway is in the Gulf of 
Mexico, whose approaches from the Atlantic at the Florida and 
Yucatan Straits can be easily defended by our Navy, enabling us in 
case of war to maintain uninterrupted communication between all 
our Gulf ports and the Ship Railway, even though every Atlantic 
port should be blockaded and the enemy’s cruisers infest the high 
seas. The harbor at the Gulf can be thoroughly defended by inex¬ 
pensive fortifications on the high lands which rise immediately above 
the entrance channel, and by torpedoes. Equally favorable condi- 


45 


tions for defence exist on the Pacific. From these facts it is evident 
that if Mexico and the United States unite to protect this transit¬ 
way, no other power or powers could successfully interfere with it. 

In a pamphlet written by Mr. Alex. D. Anderson on the Tehuan¬ 
tepec Ship Railway in 1884 , on page 11 , the strategic advantages are 
a 1 so stated as follows : 

“ The railway system of the United States, which now amounts to 

125,000 miles, has during the past year been extended to the City 
“ of Mexico by the completion of the Mexican Central road from El 
“ Paso to the City of Mexico. A second line, the Mexican National, 
“ is already half completed between Laredo and the City of Mexico, 
“ and three other lines are projected from the Rio Grande to 
“the Mexican capital. These five lines are to be prolonged south- 
“ ward to Tehuantepec by a line already projected” (and now, in 
1885 , being built by the Mexican Government,) “thereby placing 
“ the Isthmus within easy reach of the troops of the two sister repub- 
“ lies, should they ever have occasion to defend it against an attack 
“ by foreign powers. 

“ By water, also, the Isthmus is equally accessible to the troops of 
“ Mexico and the United States by steamers through an inland sea, 
“ which may easily be held against an enemy’s navy by ironclads, at 
“ the two Passes between the Atlantic and the Gulf. These remark- 
“ able advantages as a defensive point may be seen by a glance at 
“ the map of the world. It is in this respect in marked contrast with 
“ the Isthmus of Panama, or Nicaragua, which would be exposed to 
“ the enemy.” 

No such important advantages exist at either Panama or Nicara¬ 
gua. They are both much further away from this country—they are 
connected not with the Gulf but the Caribb an Sea—their harbors 
are outside of the shore lines, while at Tehuantepec they are inside. 
At Nicaragua on the Pacific, the harbor—if by “ courtesy ” it can be 
called so—is an open roadstead ; on the Atlantic it is yet to be cre¬ 
ated at immense expense, and then will be exposed to attack by an 
enemy’s ships of war. 

The only possible, or rather apparent, advantage of this route is 
the presence of Lake Nicaragua, to which our menaced merchant 
ships and naval vessels could retire, blowing up the locks behind 
them—but such “ remedy would be worse than the disease ”—we 
ourselves would thus destroy the transit-way with no compensating 
advantages. 

The Tehuantepec Route, while it will benefit the world more than 
any other route, will be of especial advantage, in every way, to the 
United States and Mexico. 

The tonnage that may be expected on completing the Ship-Rail¬ 
way has been ascertained in detail from reliable sources. It is given 
in the following table : 


46 


DETAILED STATEMENT OF TONNAGE EXPECTED 
OVER THE SHIP RAILWAY 


In 1889. 


Routes by which Commence Moves. 


Tons 1883. 


Actual Tonnage 
carried toy steam 
and sail on routes 
longer than via 
Tehuantepec. 


Tons 1889. 

Estimated from 
ratio of increase of 
commerce on the 
routes from 1879 to 
1883, and from new 
business to toe 
developed. 


1. Panama Railroad. 77,958 

2. U. S. Pacific Coast with Atlantic via 

Cape Horn.. 237,341 

3. Atlantic ports with Countries west of 

Cape Horn. 349,454 

4. U. S. Pacific Coast with foreign Coun¬ 

tries east of Cape Horn. 1,423,737 

5. European Countries with Countries west 

of Cape Horn, other than U. S. 1,828,621 

6. British Columbia (Pacific Coast) with 

Europe . 125,000 

7. Slow bulky freights now going over 

Transcontinental lines. 400,000 

8. Fifty per cent, of tonnage now going 

from Asiatic Countries to Europe via 

Cape of Good Hope. .... 400,000 


9. New trade to be developed by Ship 
Railway between Gulf Ports of U. S. 
and Mexico and Pacific Ocean. 


60,000 

359,081 

489,135 

2,135,605 

2,285,776 

235,000 

600,000 

400,000 

1 , 000,000 


Total. 4,842,111 7,564,597 


The total of 7,564,597 tons very closely agrees with the estimate 
of the Panama Canal Congress, held in 1879, made on an entirely 
different basis, and estimated for a less advantageous route. 

With the rapid and steady development of commerce, and with 
the immense advantage of this route and method, we may assuredly 
expect a rapid increase in the tonnage transported. Therefore, 
commerce, capital and the enlightened nations of the world will find 
it advantageous to encourage and assist this great enterprise. 

The important results that will certainly follow the construction of 
this great work can hardly be conceived of ; beneficial to commerce, 
and through it to the world’s varied and growing industries. 

When the Ship Railway is completed and ships pass from ocean to 
ocean, the last barrier to commerce will have been removed. The 
world then will be literally circu?nnavigable. The race will then 
possess those commercial, industrial, political, social and religious 
advantages, the demand for which have become more and more 
imperative as civilization and religion have sought out the nations 
and exerted upon them their benign influences. 

It has been well said : “ The chief element in the prosperity of 

every State and Nation is the economy of transportation of persons 
and property. It is the most marked fact in the difference between 
civilization and barbarism.” In assisting such an enterprise as the 















47 


Tehuantepec Ship Railway, we are working in the true line of 
progress and for the advancement of the race in all its highest possi¬ 
bilities and its loftiest purposes. 

This project we have discussed is the conception and the work of 
no impractical enthusiast and visionary. The important victories 
gained on the Mississippi River, in the civil war, by the formidable 
ironclad fleet built at St. Louis; the massive piers founded, for all 
time to come, on the bed-rock of the mighty river, one hundred feet 
down through the shifting quicksands ; the graceful arches that span 
the turbid flood ; the deep and commodious channel for commerce 
at the mouth of the Great River, carved through the obstructing 
sand bars—all are sureties that the projector and promoter of this 
grander plan, has himself solved the problems, met the difficulties, 
appreciated and overcome the obstacles, and that he will, with the 
aid of Science and broad-minded statesmen, and the enlightened 
capital of the world, complete the work that will be left as a grand 
heritage to posterity and an enduring monument to the constructive 
genius of James B. Eads. His high purpose and firm resolve can 
best be told in his own words, spoken not long since before a 
Boston audience : 

“ We propose to bring the Golden Gate eleven thousand miles 
nearer by sea to Plymouth Rock than it is to-day. We propose to 
open a direct line from the Atlantic Seaboard to six hundred millions 
of people on the islands and shores of the Pacific who need, not only 
the products of Boston, her mills, her factories and her workshops, 
but also the elevating and Christianizing influences which will flow 
from a more intimate intercourse with her men and women, and a 
more extensive knowledge of the institutions of art, science, litera¬ 
ture and benevolence, which illuminate and adorn the nations of 
the Atlantic. This is our task. 

“ When this work is completed, as I am sure it will be, and that 
long before a canal is cut across the American Isthmus, its benefits 
will be felt by our fellow men all over the world ; not only in lessen¬ 
ing the cost of transportation on the necessaries and luxuries of life, 
and in shortening the long, weary, trackless distances which now 
separate nations from each other, and by opening new markets for 
the multitude of commodities which are interchanged by the various 
peoples of the earth, but also by bringing distant communities into 
more intimate social and commercial relations with each other, 
whereby the better sympathies and sentiments of each will be pro¬ 
moted, their prejudices removed, the amenities of life increased, and 
the benefits of civilization, science and religion more surely tend to 
the increase of ‘ peace on earth, good-will to men.’ 

“ This work, when finished, wdl be the realization of the ardent 
wish of statesmen and philanthropists everywhere ; the dream of 
kings and conquerors during the last three hundred find fifty years, 
and a fitting supplement to the grand achievements which have 
marked the progress of the nineteenth century.” 





T ZEE IE 


INTEROCEANIC PROBLEM, 

AND 

Its Scientific Solution. 


AN ADDRESS 

Before tlie America ill Association for 
the Advancement of Science, 

BY 

ELMER L. CORTHELLj 

Civil Engineer. 


THIRD EDITION. 


THIRTY-FOURTH MEETING, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, 


7 


AUGUST 26, 1885. 






























































































































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